A family in Chile has got nothing to eat

[Ute42]

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In another thread a rather sad story has been developing over the past couple of days. This is a long story, I'm cutting it down as good as I can.

Monika in Chile is renting 3 places through airbnb in Chile but she doesn't get paid by airbnb. She started reporting about her problem on sept. 19, adressing  @Catherine-Powell  , to no avail.

Due to COVID she had to close her places on march 20 and reopened mid of august. Monika did get paid from airbnb untill the end of August, but ever since no payment. Monika says she and her husband have lost their jobs due to COVID, couldn't rent the flats and now she's not reveiving money for the completed stays.

Monika has listet a breakdown of outstanding payments for 19 stays, totalling apprx 2400 USD.

Monika has been calling and writing with airbnb every day but nothing. Unfortenately Monika's financial situation has gotten very difficult so in september she had to ask friends to lend her money to pay her bills. „We have two little kids - we can not sleep at night, worried about how to pay bills and buy food when you keep all payouts for 5 weeks“.

Meanwhile as it looks Monika has maxed out all financial resources:

• „Yesterday we were considering for me to go back to London (Monika lived there for 17 years) to find any job as here will be impossible now. We used the credit card limit and now we have nothing left. …. My 9-year-old girl heard this conversation and cried asking me not to go to London and leave them.
  
  It breaks my heart. Once while talking to airbnb , my girl took the phone and asked them, please pay my mum money“

• „Electricity bills, communal charges bills, internet bills etc etc . why, what we have done, please Airbnb pay us all money, we have nothing now, please“

2 days ago Monika received 72,000 CLS = apprx. 90 USD from airbnb. „At least I could buy some food today“ Monika wrote. But the remaining 2400 USD+ remain unpayed.

As I said this is a pretty long story, for details pls start reading here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Customer-service-updates-payments-and-more-in-the...

and continue to read there:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Customer-service-updates-payments-and-more-in-the...

The conversation starts on page 10 and continous to page 11.

This is Monika's airbnb profile Picture: Monika , Domingo, Kyara and Maia

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I've been getting real emotional over this story. Obviousely I cannot contribute anything to all these payment details, but I have decided to send 100 Euros = 120 USD to Monika in Chile so she can buy more food for her family. In order to do so, today I have set up a Western Union account for international cash payments.

What I'd like to find out is:

• How hard is it to send Money to Chile in the 21st century?

[Sharon1014]

Wow, just wow.   Needs to be fixed asap.

@Nick @Quincy  @Lizzie  @Katie 

[Colleen253]

HEINOUS

She posted an update just 8 hours ago.....STILL no money. Nothing. What the hell?

[Sarah977]

I wonder how much money Catherine Powell, Tara Bunch, and Brian Chesky had to borrow in order to eat this week.

[Heidi588]

@Ute42 I suggest trying Xoom for sending money to Latin America. It's cheaper than Western Union and is run by PayPal. You'll need to know what bank or service provider they'll want to pick it up from when you see which ones are available in their area. 

[Super47]

@Ute42 @Sharon1014 @Colleen253 @Sarah977 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

I have spoken at length with @Monika-And-Domingo0 over the past several days, both by email and on the phone, and I can assure everyone that these are good, decent, proud, hardworking people who have been plunged into a living nightmare, not through any fault of their own, but as a direct result of Airbnb's deception and duplicity.

Summary - since they very first started hosting, up until March of this year, M&D's Airbnb earnings had arrived without issue into their dedicated bank account in Chile (apart from one booking in March, for which they're still owed) 

From April to August, Chile - like most other countries worldwide - was subject to severe Covid restrictions/lockdowns, and M&D only had around half a dozen bookings from front line workers etc during that entire period. However, with the help of their savings, they managed to hang on through the lean months, in the hopes that things would pick up eventually.

In August, they reopened their listings and bookings started coming in again, but on August 25th, the couple noticed that all payments had stopped. Upon investigation, M&D discovered that since April, any payouts that had gone into their bank had not been via the usual bank transfer, but by 'deposito en efectivo' (cash cheque), through the SERVIPAG system, from two separate locations in Northern Chile. Their bank informed them that deposits via this method do not have a tracking number and are not traceable, unlike regular bank transfers. Not ideal when one is trying to locate thousands of dollars worth of missing payouts, as Monika and Domingo now are.

Since Sept 5th, Monica has been contacting Airbnb on a daily basis, spending interminable hours emailing and calling in a desperate attempt to have Airbnb release the money she and her family so urgently need to pay bills, feed their family and at this point, keep the roof over their heads and save the little hosting business that she and her husband have worked so hard to build.

Long story short - since Sept 5th, Airbnb has pushed them from pillar to post, fobbed them off with every preposterous excuse under the sun, messed them around relentlessly, blanked them, wasted inordinate amounts of their time and effort, flat out lied to them, and have driven them to the brink of despair. Monika's heartfelt, agonised pleas for assistance were wilfully ignored on the thread Ute linked to above (even though both Catherine Powell and the forum mods were regularly responding to many other posts on that same thread) from when she first started posting there on Sept 16th, until Catherine finally responded with a vague, non-committal response on Sept 28th.

On October 2nd, forum mod Katie posted that a customer support rep called Sergi had been in contact several times with Monika and Domingo, and falsely claimed that the delay in payments was down to M&D not providing certain information that Airbnb required of them to proceed. This is absolutely and completely untrue (to clarify, Katie is in no way at fault for this - the mods are just posting what they're instructed by Airbnb to post, and have no way of knowing the actual facts)

On October 3rd, Monika and Domingo finally received the tiny amount (again via deposito en efectivo - cash cheque), of just 72,800 CLP from the total of over 24,000,000 CLP of their money, that Airbnb currently owes them, for the 20+ Airbnb reservations they have now hosted, apparently for free. Barely enough to keep their family fed for a short while, let alone fight off the wolves from the door. The question to Airbnb is this - if this payout could successfully find its way to M&Ds bank account, why then, could the entire amount they're owed for the past month and a half, not be deposited along with it? 

So what's really going on here, @Catherine-Powell @Tara-Bunch@Sam-Shrauger @Airbnb?? You all know as well as we know, that at any one time, there are innumerable hosts in exactly the same hopeless, helpless, powerless position as Monika and Domingo - but most are too intimidated or too scared of being booted off the platform to speak out. 

On Sept 25th, at 2.48am, your support agent Jenelle wrote..

"We have other Chilean hosts who are also facing the same issues" 

How may other Chilean hosts, exactly, Catherine? We're also hearing many reports of widespread Brazilian payout issues too. How many affected there, and left with no money to feed their families or pay their rents Tara? And Sam Shrauger - as Airbnb VP Global Head of Payments and Chairman and CEO of Airbnb Payments Inc - perhaps you could justify your impressive title by advising us of when all the other countless thousands of hosts around the world who are also victims of the Airbnb missing/delayed/withheld payouts debacle - some of them waiting to be paid for up to 18 months or more - might hope to receive the badly-needed  income that is rightfully theirs? 

Do we take it that Airbnb is operating some sort of Ponzi scheme now, whereby the company is using hosts' desperately needed funds to pad out its pre-IPO balance sheets, for the updated SEC filings? Because - along with many other highly dubious financial practices that the company has been engaging in over the past number of months (deducting money from hosts' upcoming payouts for refunds for totally unrelated cancellations that had scheduled arrival dates far in the future, just one example of many) - a Ponzi scheme is sure as hell what this is looking like.

Nowhere in the T&Cs does it state that hosts must offer 30/60/90 day (or more) credit facilities to Airbnb to keep the company afloat. And make no mistake, there's not a host in earth who signed up to act as Airbnb's de facto piggy bank, that the company can raid at will, whenever it needs to shore up its own finances. 

The inhumane, despicable abuse, exploitation and mistreatment by Airbnb of decent, honourable hosts like Monika and Domingo - and incalculable numbers of other Monikas and Domingos across the globe - has to stop, and it has to stop now. Catherine Powell, Tara Bunch, Sam Shrauger - this is your watch. And your mess to sort out. 

[Cormac0]

Brian Chesky CEO and head of community, don't make me laugh

Chesky and his motley crew heads are spinning from all the BS about community, at this stage they don't know their arse from their elbow.

[Helen3]

So sad to hear yet another story where Airbnb has delayed payment to a host. It would seem such a simple thing for Airbnb to look into and resolve. 

I would suggest they approach their local media with this story @Super47 @Ute42 as Airbnb are more likely to do something if approached by a journalist.

Hopefully in the meantime family and friends can help them cover essential bills and they may be able to find some work to pay bills even if it’s not what they normally do.

I know in the UK there’s currently quite a lot of work going in supermarkets, distribution centres, as delivery drivers , health and care and the post office but don’t know what might be available in their country. We are also fortunate enough to have mortgage breaks, food banks and welfare benefits to help us. 

I do hope their issue gets resolved soon. 

[Super47]

"I would suggest they approach their local media with this story @Super47@Ute42 as Airbnb are more likely to do something if approached by a journalist" 

That's already in hand, @Helen3, in addition to other avenues. But the fundamental issue here is how shameful and contemptible it is that a decent, hard-working family should have to resort to going public with what should be their private business in the first place, and be forced to go to the extreme lengths of seeking media, legal and political assistance in the attempt to extract their earnings - ie the money they're depending on to feed and house their family - from a multi-billion dollar global corporation, whose sole concern is their own mercenary interests. Not just shameful, but criminal actually.

"Hopefully in the meantime family and friends can help them cover essential bills and they may be able to find some work to pay bills even if it’s not what they normally do"

If any of those suggestions were viable options, believe me, Monika and Domingo would have pursued them weeks ago. Unfortunately, Chile doesn't offer the same opportunities and safeguards as the UK. 

[Helen3]

You are right this is an impossible situation not just for this host but for many hundreds if not thousands of hosts around the world who inexplicably find themselves having their payments withheld @Super47 

I remember during the last Covid outbreak Australian hosts reported this happening and  before this Italian hosts. 

We also had this issue for some hosts in the UK.

It seems inexcusable and inexplicable that Airbnb refuse to put resources into resolving blockages in payments.

I have now been waiting over a week for my latest month long booking payment which shows as ‘processing’ so will need to try and reach them.

You are right we shouldn’t have to go public to try and get a resolution. 

I also agree with @Sharon that hopefully they are now listing on other platforms and directly or looking at long term bookings so they are not reliant on Airbnb

[Sharon1014]

I hope they have since listed on other platforms where booking monies are paid direct to the host at the time of booking.  Completely unacceptable situation.

Look forward to hearing they have received every last dollar owed within the next 24 hours.

[Ute42]

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As I said in my opening thread I have just opened an account with Western Union. For all of You who know nothing about this payment service, as I did until 12 hours ago, here's how it works.

First You have to open an account with Western Union, pretty much the same procedure as with all platforms You start working with. I did that successfully.

In order to find out how Western Union works in reality, I made a testpayment of 50 Euros to my husband. As far as the receiver of the payment goes, You have to select a country, and submit the first and last name of the person. I also had to submit the adress of the receiver. Not sure if this is mandatory for each and every country. Then I made the payment from my bankaccount. Here's the breakdown I got:

As You can see, sending 50 Euros cost 2.90 Euros in fees, so I have to pay 52.90 Euros alltogether.

After the money was deducted from my bankaccount using online banking, I got this message from Western Union.

As You can see there's a red underlined Transaction number. I could now mail this Transaction number to the receiver of these 50 Euros and said person could pick up 50 Euros at any Western Union branch in Germany.

I will report later if an how my Husband got the money.

For all of You who are not familiar with „Euro“. That's a european currency, much like the US Dollar, just different. Most european countries have the Euro as their currency, Great Britain doesn't. They've got their extra saussage with the GBP, as usual.

[Colleen253]

@Ute42 That was easy! If transferring money is that easy, why is Airbnb having SO much trouble getting Monika her money they owe her? Perhaps they could follow your simple tutorial here and find success.

[Super47]

@Colleen253

They managed to transfer the equivalent of about 90 dollars to the very same bank account that Monika and Domingo have always had, just 3 days ago though (but unfortunately, that wasn't accompanied by the other approx 2300 dollars they've been owed for over 6 weeks now) And as @Ute42 has clearly demonstrated, it's a very simple, very straightforward process really. 

So the big question we should all be asking now is not "Why can't Airbnb transfer the thousands of dollars they owe M&D into their account?", but "Why won't Airbnb transfer the thousands of dollars they owe M&D into their account?"

Perhaps @Catherine-Powell or @Tara-Bunch might like to clear up that little conundrum for us here on this thread, because so far, Monika and Domingo's attempts to get answers from either lady via email appear to have been roundly ignored. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Airbnb  @Catherine-Powell  @Super47 @Ute42 

Whilst its all very convenient to claim that the Airbnb system is so automated that not even a forward payment can be made to complete the balance of an existing booking - how the hell can an automated or secure system be reliant in part on cash payments into high street shops for host remuneration? How is that 'automated'  plausible or even remotely legal?

Something more than a simple glitch is afoot here, magnified by the lack of action and ineffective intervention by Airbnb and all their agents from the top down.

@Catherine-Powell  This does nothing towards inspiring any sort of confidence in an already suspect  company. The plight of home hosts and their treatment in this manner when they are 'supposed' to be the grounding of and  'back to the roots' drive claimed by Brian Chesky leaves very much to be desired. There appears to be a cavern of hollow promises still awaiting to be fulfilled.